» Residents displaced by the flood should register with FEMA to get assistance. To register, call 1-800-621-FEMA (3362) or visit www.disasterassistance.gov

» Weld County has a wealth of information for flood victims posted to its 2013 flood website, flood2013.weldgov.com. The map of alternate roads can also be found at this website.

» The two disaster recover centers in Weld County are at Island Grove Events Center, 425 N. 15th Ave. in Greeley, and the Southwest Weld Service Center, at 4209 Wed County Road 24.5 in Del Camino/Longmont.

» Evans residents who have questions about the tags on their homes should call the city’s building department at (970) 475-1120

» The Weld County Health Department is providing free tetanus shots at the Greeley recovery center, and will assist in getting birth certificates for those born in Colorado. The Department of Human Services will assist with food stamp reallocations, applications and referrals to other financial services. The Clerk & Recorders Office will assist with documentation in order to acquire a Colorado driver’s license or state ID.

» The city of Evans has imposed a mandatory curfew within the evacuated area east of U.S. 85. Officials say the curfew will be from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. to keep the area secure. Residents who need access between those hours may provide proof of residency to receive an access authorizations letter.

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Jose Sandoval stood knee-deep in murky brown water on Wednesday several feet from his home, where floodwaters still flanked it on all sides.

“See where the water line is?” Sandoval said, pointing to a line of debris just a few inches from the roof of his home at Eastwood Village mobile home park in Evans.

As he pointed, his partner, Ruth Flores, waded up to their now-detached front porch, grabbed a lawn chair and set it against the window so that she could crawl in.

Sandoval had been to the home on Saturday, when he said the water was still chest-deep. He said he didn’t need to go in a second time.

“It’s ugly, ugly in there,” he said. “I’ve seen enough.”

Sandoval and Flores were some of the last people allowed to return to their flood-ravaged homes on Wednesday following the historic natural disaster that slammed Evans, east Greeley and other communities along the South Platte and Poudre rivers in Weld County.

Many lost everything. Some Evans residents on Wednesday stood in their front yards and spoke with their neighbors, while others tried to scrounge whatever they could from their homes.

At a community meeting held by Weld County commissioners Wednesday evening, questions abounded from displaced residents. The flurry of frustrations and concerns varied by the individual, but a central question hung over the heads of the more than 100 people there, as well as those standing helplessly by their destroyed homes: What now?

First and foremost, go to the disaster recovery centers, officials at the meeting said. There, displaced residents should find help from the likes of human services, North Range Behavioral Health, the Red Cross and FEMA. All of those affected by the flood qualify for assistance from FEMA and should register as soon as possible. The Greeley and Weld County housing authorities are gathering lists of landlords with any vacancies, and that information, too, is available at the disaster centers.

Weld County Commissioner Bill Garcia added that flood victims should also look to the faith-based community, namely Journey Christian Church in Greeley, for help.

Rick Hartman, a member of the Weld Faith Partnership Council, said 38 of the area’s church pastors have collaborated to make Journey their main point of contact.

So far, Weld County Commissioner Sean Conway said 685 people have passed through the disaster recovery centers set up in Greeley and the tri-town area. Of those, he said 550 have passed through the one in Greeley. Conway said reports of Boulder’s disaster recovery center show only 12 people passed through, and 10 have been helped in Adams County.

A humans relations representative with JBS USA said the company knows of 49 employees’ families who lost their homes completely.

Making progress

In Evans, Mayor Lyle Achziger said the city sent in a FEMA-certified team to search for people who may have been trapped in the mess and to analyze homes for their safety. All of those homes will be tagged, he said, with green, yellow or orange signs. The orange ones are not safe to live in or enter, he said.

Achziger said the no flush order has been helped greatly by Greeley’s assistance in pumping some sewage through a temporary line, and the 10-day limit is looking like it will come through.

He said long-term, it looks as though the river has chosen a new course in a few places, which will take some engineering consultations.

In the meantime, he said the city will have to find a short-term fix — something Conway said is on the docket for many Weld County roads and bridges.

He said the county will focus on main roads used by the agricultural industry before fast-approaching harvest time, using whatever fixes are necessary to make those roads passable. Conway said the Colorado Department of Transportation has said it may be able to temporarily fill the section of U.S. 34 between Greeley and Kersey that dissolved in the flood.

Conway said the good news is the county has already repaired 10 roads that were flooded out, and road closures have dropped from 140 to 44. The county configured a map of alternate routes on its website for residents to consult before their commutes.

Commissioners also spoke about steps the county has taken to help flood victims, including unlimited vouchers for one truck full of waste to be taken to the landfill for free and a unanimous resolution commissioners passed earlier in the day that waives fees associated with reconstruction, like building permits and demolition fees, for those affected by the flood.

Fred Stenzel, who lives near LaSalle, stood up to say he had been lucky — he received “unbelievable” help from FEMA.

“There are all kinds of programs that can help you,” he encouragingly told those gathered at the community meeting. “We just have to be patient, and understand that the few of us in here, we are just a small percentage of those who were affected.”

No more tears

Earlier in the day on Wednesday, Flores wasn’t sure she would make it in to see her home.

She was wearing sandals — now the only shoes to her name — when she fled her home on Friday and needed boots to get to the far back corner of the mobile home park, where her family lived.

She and Sandoval ventured through the neighborhood to see how far she could make it in sandals, passing a mud-crusted stroller left in the street, fences folded in on themselves, and abandoned cars.

The neighborhood smelled at times like a lake, at other times a sewage plant. Mosquitoes buzzed over pools of standing water and, in the distance, maintenance workers silently worked on damaged infrastructure under an intense September sun.

“Oh, God, this is chaos,” Flores said. “I don’t even smoke, and I feel like smoking.”

Sandoval pointed to a ravaged home next to him.

“We were just going to do the roof on that, too,” Sandoval said of his work as a roofer. “We had the contract lined up and everything.”

Later, Flores emerged from the couples’ home with little good news. Their five kids, ages 5, 6, 7, 9 and 13, would be disappointed — the Xbox didn’t make it.

Flores said her collection of coveted Coach purses were destroyed. It might not even be worth the trip to get the few things that did survive the flood, she said.

“Your orange Converse are good,” Flores shouted to Sandoval from her perch outside of the window. “The bathrooms are both full with (expletive) mudwater.”

Shortly after the pair ventured back from the wreckage, crews dressed in wader pants began knocking on the doors of the mobile homes to be sure no one was trapped inside. Several National Guard trucks lined up on 37th Street, and firefighters stood ready to rinse off the boots of those who trekked through the contaminated water.

Roderigo Corral looked on as they methodically posted bright orange signs on every front door on his street.

“Unsafe. Do not enter or occupy,” they said.

Corral and his mother-in-law sat in their garage, beside heaps of ruined clothes, furniture and housing supplies that they dragged outside. The tree in Corral’s front yard in Riverside Park, just off of 37th Street, had been uprooted and lay across his driveway.

“Everything is gone,” he said.

Every few minutes, a few more people emerged from their homes with a singular box or container, walking silently from their old homes — some for the last time.

Through it all, Flores and Sandoval maintained relatively good spirits. Sandoval even teased Flores as she struggled to conquer a fence and get back to him.

“I gotta get a video, I gotta get a video,” he said, laughing.

Sandoval said Wednesday was a time to see what remained. If the flood took everything, then it’s time to pick up, and move on, he said.